Teach Me
by ArmedWithMyComputer
Summary: Free-running : a form of urban acrobatics in which participants, known as free runners, use the city and rural landscape to express themselves in their environment without limitations. In which Kili discovers the art of free-running, gets hooked, and has to try not to let his addiction show to his concerned family.


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He's not sure how it happened.

The first time he saw the group, he ended up flat on the ground. Kili was running home from school, already late, and they were free running through the park. He wasn't watching where he was going, they didn't see him through their flips, and it all ended up in a tangle of limbs on the ground.

He was hooked though.

After they detangled themselves, he got a good look at them – all windswept hair and adrenaline filled smiles. They looked back, at the scrawny kid with bright eyes and fidgeting limbs. He begged for them to show him something, anything to get a taste of whatever the beautiful madness he had been caught up in was, but they laughed and refused.

He watched them run off, vaulting and somersaulting like a group of wild children. And he vowed that he would be a part of it.

Somehow his bags had dropped to the ground, and his feet took off after the group, stumbling after the sound of laughter and elation. They didn't notice him at first, in their concentration, but when they reached the end of the park and heard the cry of frustration when Kili couldn't scale the large fence, they stopped.

"Little prince lost?" One of them called out, and Kili scowled, trying to scramble over the iron bars.

Another swept off his hat with a bow, and smirked, "Perhaps the princeling thinks he can run with the wolves?"

Kili didn't respond, all his breath lost, and fell to the ground on the wrong side with a gasp. The group stared back at him through the bars, as if daring him to try again. So he did – backing up a few paces so he could fling himself onto the fence like they had, a strangled laugh forcing itself out of him when he finally reached the top and tumbled down to the other side.

The pavement knocked whatever semblance of air that he had left in his lungs right out, and they circled him as he lay panting on the ground. A foot poked him in the side, and a not unkind voice said, "Bit skinny, isn't he?"

He growled weakly, and staggered to his feet, one arm wrapped around his ribs.

"Teach me."

A moment passed with no sound, except the beating of his heart, and one of them cocked his head, "See if you can keep up, princeling." And then they were off again, like the speed of a gunshot and the grace of a gazelle, vaulting over benches and bins with ease.

He didn't hesitate, tearing after them with everything that he had left inside him, and clumsily attempting the same stunts as them. He couldn't do most of them, and crashed into the ground like he was made to do it, but he always jumped back onto his feet and ran blindly after them.

It seemed to be a game for them, as they lingered for a second to see if he would get back up each time, and he caught the eye of several as he wiped blood away from his grazed cheek, smearing it everywhere while he ran. The feeling of _belonging_ and power surged through him, and Kili beamed when he ended up surrounded up the group again, some of them doing flips in tandem.

It felt like the beating of his heart matched the pace of the running, and most of the time Kili didn't even know what he was doing.

After a while, they started helping him up when he fell, a hand grasping his bicep and hauling up within a blink of an eye, another hand grabbing a handful of material to keep him from wiping out again. He fell into a routine of vaulting and falling, and running and jumping to scramble up a wall.

When they finally stopped, he had no energy left—but felt more alive than he ever had.

Kili sagged against one of them, the one with the star shaped hair, and laughed more than he ever had in his life. He said again, eyes sparkling, "Teach me."

The group laughed at him, but it was different somehow. Wind rushed through his hair, as they studied him, and Kili wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to stop smiling. Everything seemed brighter after that life-fulfilling run, and he basked in the light of the streetlamps.

"We misjudged you."

One of the group signed something with his hands, and the one with the hat on smiled wickedly at whatever the man had said. "Aye, perhaps."

He could feel the energy draining from him already, the events catching up on him, so Kili just begged again, "Teach me."

"Not tonight, princeling, for the night has cast it's shadow down, and tis no place for princeling like you," Kili gasped in desperation at this, not sure how he could have loved something so much so quickly, "but do not be fearful to run with us again, when you see us next."

Quicker than he could comprehend, the group melted into the darkness, taking off with whoops of excitement that tore through Kili's soul.

He was left in an unknown part of time, under a streetlamp, and feeling like he would never be whole without whatever that had been. He tried to recreate the feeling on the way home, by running and leaping and twisting through the air, but his tiredness weighed him down, and he only succeeded in spraining his wrist.

By the time he got home, he was later than he ever had been, and his mother fussed over him something awful. She cried out at the scrapes on his face, and the fatigue that had taken him over, but couldn't understand why Kili wouldn't stop smiling.

He collapsed into bed, staring out the window at the dark sky, and feeling the wonder flow through him.

.

He looked for them for four whole days.

Kili couldn't ditch school, for his brother would tell on him and pry, but he spent his afternoons prowling the streets, following the sound of laughter whenever he heard it. He spent the rest of his time practising landing in a roll, instead of just smashing onto the ground, and scaling walls until his hands bled with small cuts.

When he dragged himself in at night, his mother and brother looked worried and pried at him to tell his secret, but he shrugged them off. They wouldn't understand.

Fili begged for him to tell him what was wrong, and why he slipped off the second school ended, and why his clothes were ripped. He just shook his head, rubbing at the bruises on his shins, and wondered why it felt so wrong to let someone from his life know.

The he found them.

The group was lounging outside a restaurant, heads lolling as they soaked in the sunshine, and he almost tripped in his excitement to get over to them. The smallest one noticed him first, and nudged the older man beside him, with a shy grin.

"Our princeling returns then, does he?"

He stumbles at the last hurdle, a chair in his way, but makes it nonetheless, "I've been looking, and now I've found you. This—my chest won't stop aching when I think of the other night. My pulse pounds at the mere sight of an obstacle—and I need more. Teach me."

They look mildly interested, and more than a little amused, and he's breathless again at the thought of them rejecting him.

"He's got th' taste fer it now."

"Suppose he's got the enthusiasm for it."

Another blew out a smoke ring, "_The Company_ could always use a new member."

"A bit young though."

Kili could feel his desperation spilling onto his face, and he bit his lip, moving his shaking hands behind his back to hide his nerves. His head dips slightly, feeling the weight of his dreams sinking with his heart, and he can't bear to look any of them in the face.

But then— "What's yer name, princeling?"

He snaps his gaze up, to the group, and can hardly believe his luck. " 's not princeling, anyway. Kili."

"Aye, but sure it suits you, laddie. Kili though…" The man muses his name, as if tasting it in his mouth, and raises his eyebrows at the others. They stare back, stony faced, and it feels like a decision has been made, but Kili is left glancing from one member to the other.

"Don't get yer Ma to come ragin' to us if you get hurt," Is all they say in terms of accepting him, and he sways on his feet, anticipation rushing through him like a tidal wave. Kili shakes his head in a daze, watching as they spring to standing positions, leaving smoothed notes on the table as way of payment.

Then they're running again, and he's fighting to keep up, but it's a game now, and they brush against him, guiding him through alleyways and over back walls.

The days are spent learning how to properly vault and balance on his feet. One member teaches him, while the others run across window ledges and backflip off buildings with grins on their faces. He doesn't know their names, doesn't need to, and they call him _princeling_, screaming it as they teach him how to navigate the city by building top. The nickname doesn't even make sense, but it fills him with a kind of happiness that he's never felt before, as he rolls easily to his feet with a laugh.

.

He makes it home one night by rooftop, scampering through dark streets when the buildings fail him, feeling lighter on his feet than he ever has.

Fili is waiting for him, curled up on the bench outside their house, and he looks mad. Kili can't find the words to express whatever it is that he's feeling, so he just grins breathlessly, not understanding why his brother isn't reacting.

But then he's dragged inside, and his uncle is waiting, looking furious.

Kili bounces around the kitchen, evading his mother's hands as she reaches for his torn jumper and shakes her head at the mud stains on his trousers. His brother leans against the door, hands crossed over his chest, and frowns in confusion.

"Kili, are you on drugs?"

The accusation comes out of nowhere, and he just reacts, leaping to his feet and shaking his head, "No – course not! How could you say that?"

His brother answers before anyone else gets the chance, stalking forward, "Because you never come home anymore! You're so jumpy, you can't even sit still for a moment," Kili shakes his head again, despite the fact that he's balancing on his toes and hopping from one foot to the other, "You don't talk to me, and I've heard rumours that you just run through the city all day, when you should be at home!"

"I've met some friends," and the look of surprise on their faces would be hurtful if Kili wasn't having so much fun trying to hop and land on one foot perfectly still again, "And they've been teaching me how to run. Through the city. And I like it."

His uncle Thorin looks appalled, like he's just said that he's running away to the circus or living as a street urchin, and he spreads his hands out in a calming manner. Kili resists the urge to do a handstand, remembering how the group had done them on roof ledges in the evening sun.

"Kili, have you been taking your ADHD meds properly?" He nods, and jumps over to one of the chairs, landing on his hunkers perfectly. Kili beams with pride, but his family's faces are anything but. "Kili, stop messing. Sit down in that chair properly—I'm trying to have a conversation."

"We are having a conversation."

The look on Thorin's face suggests otherwise, so he sits properly, tapping his feet against the ground in a rhythm that matches how he feels like he goes free-running with the group. It's fast-paced and lively, and changes every second. Fili still isn't smiling though, and he looks almost… hurt. He wonders if he should invite Fili to come out with the group, but he's not sure if his brother would get it.

The night passes in a series of lectures, and long speeches that Kili can't find the concentration to listen to. He twitches towards the door, longing to jump up and sprint off into the night, but Fili is leaning against it again, and Thorin seems to be trying very hard to keep his attention.

Finally they let him go to bed, and he leaps up the steps with all the strength he can muster, hanging off one of the bannisters until his mother yells at him. He needs to get out of the house, needs to go running in the moonlight to relieve some of the tension that's pressing down on him.

When Fili peeks into his room the next morning, the window is open and his bed is empty.

.

He runs by himself that day, until he finds the group, and then he runs with them.

There's no official leader of the group, at least Kili doesn't think, but they all have their quirks and roles. He stays out with them all day, learning names and new tricks, but most of all laughing.

Dori gives him a leg-up when he can't quite jump high enough, Nori shows him how to slip his hand in someone's pocket without them noticing, Ori lets him look inside his notebook of scribbled sketches. Gloin makes him do pull-ups on the climbing frame at the playground to improve his upper body strength, and Oin looks over at a cut that won't stop bleeding. Bombur slips him chocolate that melts in his mouth, Bifur coaches him silently in reverse vaults, and Bofur calls him _princeling_ while he does a running backflip off a wall.

He loses himself in the rhythm of the running, and continues long after they split up, before he finally heads home again.

Kili had forgotten that he would be in trouble upon returning, and the punch that Fili lands across his face genuinely shocks him. He stumbles back, and Thorin's hand closes around his arm before he can even think of running off again.

"Kili Durin, you are in so much trouble." His mother looks like she's torn between bursting into tears and yelling in anger.

He can't move, thanks to Thorin's grip, and that makes him uncomfortable, trembling ever so slightly, "I was with my friends. We were running. I lost track of time." It doesn't seem that his explanation is going to be enough, so Kili tries to elaborate, "They teach me how to fly through the city." Then, in a smaller voice, he adds, "They like me."

Suddenly, he feels closed in, and like he's never going to see the sky as he somersaults over walls again, and his heart thuds painfully. Thorin won't let go of him, and Kili's foot taps out a restless beat, his body physically shaking at this point.

"This is crazy, Kili, you're barely more than a child. I can't—I can't let you just run all around the city, with these 'friends' all day. You understand that, don't you?" His mother leans down so she's looking him right in the eyes, despite the fact that he's trying to see out the window, "Kili, please."

His brother doesn't say anything, when Kili looks over pleadingly at him, and he looks scared. Then Kili realises that they haven't spoken properly in days, but he was just so caught up in the city and the freedom that he felt when he let everything go and just _ran_. He wants to say sorry, but Thorin is speaking again, and it sounds serious.

"Your mother and I have decided that we're going to send you to Balin and Dwalin's house, just for a while. So you can refocus a bit. Kili, do you understand?"

He twists in the tight grip that's holding him, and tries to say that he doesn't want to be sent away, that he won't go running for so long again, but he can't get the words out. They clog up in his throat, and his lips struggle to make some sense, but it just ends up with his mother holding tightly to him and crying.

Fili had packed a suitcase for him, and he looks lost for words as he hands it silently to Kili. He can't come, Kili knows that, because he's got important exams in a few days, but the hurt that tears at his heart when his brother says goodbye makes Kili almost wish that he'd never seen the group in the first place.

They leave almost straight away, in Thorin's car that rattles when they go over bumps, and Kili wonders if it's because they don't trust him to not be gone in the morning. He bangs his arm against the door in a pattern over and over again, ignoring the way his uncle looks sideways at him.

Balin and Dwalin's house is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by flat land, and he wants to cry when he thinks back to the tall buildings and twisted alleys and obstacles of the city.

He pretends not to hear when they lock his bedroom door from the outside.

.

After a week in the house, he feels like he has a routine.

Thorin stayed with him, and Kili supposes that that's a good thing, but he goes out of his way to avoid his uncle, and doesn't listen when Thorin calls for him to come down from the roof. His doctor ups his meds, so that dulls things down, and the huge wide open space with nothing but the house to climb on him makes him feel lonely.

In the mornings, Balin teaches him some lessons, mostly in history, and he tries to pay attention, he really does. Dwalin gives him self-defence classes in the afternoons, and while it occupies him and interests him, it's not the same as vaulting over roofs and balancing on railings over the river.

Fili rings every night, sounding distraught and stressed, so he lies and tells his brother that it's really not that bad. But it really is.

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When he's finally allowed to go back to the city, there's so many rules that it almost feels like he's still stuck out in the countryside.

His brother sticks with him all the time, following him and pretending that it's not another one of the rules. He wanders the streets, Fili at his side, but he can't find the group again. Kili goes to all the places that they'd been together, but they'd been everywhere in the city, so it didn't narrow things down any.

He ends up sitting on top of the fence where he'd first gained their respect, with Fili standing down below, just watching him. His brother lets out a cry of warning when Kili stands up on the fence, balancing on one foot, but he knows that he won't fall.

After an hour, he somersaults to the ground, brushing past Fili's spluttering, and heads home.

Kili goes to school and goes home afterwards for a few days, resisting the urge to start running just because then his brother won't be able to follow him everywhere. He doesn't though, because he can see the way his uncle's eyes watch him while he moves restlessly through the house, and the way his mother looks disappointed.

He does let himself sneak up to the rooftop at night though, when everyone else has gone asleep, and just lets himself watch the skyline of the city.

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It happens a few weeks after he gets back to the city.

Thorin had brought Fili and Kili into the city, to get some school supplies he thinks, but he wasn't really listening when Thorin explained. The streets are packed with people, and the shops are starting to blend into one as they drift in and out of them.

But then someone bangs into his uncle, and grips the watch that Thorin's grandfather had used to own, the one made with precious metals and that had been in their family for years, right off his wrist. Kili flinches as his uncle lets out a roar of anger, reaching out for the thief, but he's not quick enough and the man is darting into the crowd.

He sees the dragon embroidered on the black jacket, eyes narrowing in on the insignificant detail, while Fili lets out a cry of loss for the family heirloom.

Kili doesn't even think – he just runs.

The thief already has a head start on him, but the crowd is parting with yells of surprise, and Kili makes up half the distance as he vaults over the fountain. He somersaults with a half twist over a bench that's in his way, nimbly springing to his feet without even pausing to take a breath.

His uncle is yelling after him to stop, but the running feels too good, and he feels alive again. He's going to get that watch back.

The man climbs quickly up a ladder leaning against a building, knocking it to the ground to try and dissuade Kili from following him, but it doesn't even faze him. Kili scrambles up the wall, his hands easily gripping onto the ledge and his body swinging up behind him.

They're on a balcony then, the wind blowing in his face, and within seconds he's caught up to the guy, and wrenched the watch from his grubby hand. Without breaking his stride, Kili jumps up onto the balcony ledge, and lets himself fall over the edge, landing deftly on his feet with a grin.

Fili slams into him, almost crushing him with the biggest hug that he's ever endured. It almost feels like his brother is crying, but then Thorin is hugging him and shaking him at the same time, so Kili doesn't have time to think about that.

A policeman appears far too late, and catches the thief, but Kili doesn't even care that much anymore. He got the watch back, that's all he wanted.

After that, people swarm around him like he's some kind of superhero, and when it finally builds up to be too much, he slips away.

.

They find him on that same fence from the first day.

Fili smiles up at him, and Thorin looks concerned at his position of standing on one leg, but to his credit, he doesn't say anything. He raises his eyebrows at them, unsure of how they'll react, but before they can say something, a voice chimes out.

"So now we finally find our princeling again?"

It's the group, slinking up from inside the park, all grins and Ori even does a cartwheel. His face splits into the first proper smile in ages, and Kili almost leaps off the fence to join his friends.

But then he remembers that his brother and uncle are still on the other side, and suddenly he doesn't know what to do. He freezes, still balanced on one foot, and doesn't know where to look. One hand shakes at his side, and Kili closes his eyes.

"Where've you been, princeling?"

"Comin' to join us, are you?"

"Kili, are these your friends?"

The last voice is deep and thoughtful, and he knows that it's Thorin. His uncle is staring up at him, while Fili fidgets and looks wide-eyed at the group shifting on the other side of the fence. Kili stares up at the sky, wishing that he didn't have to choose, but he knows who he has to pick.

He's about to hop down, to the side with his brother on it, the voice speaks again, "You can go with them." He pauses, glancing up in pure disbelief, until Thorin elaborates, "Kili, go with your friends – its okay. Just… don't be too late."

When his eyes dart over to his brother, Fili just nods, and gestures towards the group, who are moving restlessly behind him, "Go, Kili. Have fun."

He jumps down to the other side, is enveloped by the group, and then they set off. He pauses to look back at Thorin and Fili, but they wave him off, and he jumps and spins, laughter ripping out of him as joy takes his breath away again.

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_I really don't know where this idea came from. It just kind of felt right… In terms of ages, I'm not sure, so it can just be totally AU and you can decide what ages you want them to be :) I hope you guys liked this, my first Hobbit piece! I might expand on it later, not sure though, so let me know if you want to see more.._

_Review..?_

_Thanks for reading, _

_ArmedWithMyComputer xx_


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